Like one of Lancelots' Damsels
by never-to-see
Summary: The night guard just stares at him for a moment, trying to figure out exactly what Ahkmenrah has just said. The minute he figures it out he finds himself trying not to laugh.


**_From this anonymous tumblr prompt: "Can you please write an ahk/Larry oneshot about the aftermath of ahk fainting into larry's arms whenever the tablet was corroding and make it cute and fluffy? I'll love you forever."_**

**_I'm pretending that Ahk came back to New York with them because I couldn't work out the best way to wrte it otherwise._**

**_Here you go, darlin'._**

The first time it happens Larry catches him just before he hits the floor. It's a close call, Ahkmenrah reaching out for a wall that isn't there as he doubles over and he's lucky that Larry is close enough to get a hold of him before he goes down. When the Pharaoh manages to right himself he does so with a shy smile, glancing away from the night guards concern.

"I'm fine," he says quietly, answering before he can ask. He's not fine, this much is obvious, and it's only been getting worse as the night wears on. It started with a headache and progressed to various stabbing pains, and he doesn't doubt that Larry had noticed almost as soon as it had started. This was the first time the pain had been enough to make him faint, even if he hadn't quite lost consciousness he feared the next time would only be worse. Larry didn't say anything to the lie, but the way he looked at him let the Pharaoh know that he wasn't buying it. He was thankful for his silence though.

The next time it happens he collapses backwards, Larry has been keeping an eye on him for the past few hours, hovering close by in case it happens again. He feels his legs give out and a pair of strong arms wrapping around his waist before he blacks out completely.

He wakes up a good ten minutes later and he's lying on his back, the lights of the museum hurt his eyes and it takes a moment before he spots the night guard sat beside him, worry etched onto his faced and holding his hand rather tightly.

"What..." he starts, drawing Larry's attention back to him from where he had been talking to Nick.

"Hey, hey, you're okay," the relief in his voice is hard to miss as he smiles down at him. Ahkmenrah sat up slowly. "Oh! You, uh, kinda lost your crown back there," the other man hands the crown back to him and the Pharaoh sets it on his head gently.

"Thank you," he says with a small nod in Larry's direction. Larry stands and holds out his hand to the young King, pulling him up off the floor. He sees the night guard is about to say something so he quickly turns away and asks Nick about how close they are to finding Jed and Octavius, if he notices the disappointment on Larry's face he doesn't acknowledge it.

He's dying all over again, he can feel it. He only has vague memories of what dying felt like the first time round, he was too focused on the shock of seeing his own brother leaning over him to kill him. This time though he can feel himself rotting from the inside out, he briefly wonders how that's possible because all of his organs are in canopic jars buried somewhere in Egypt (as far as he's aware), but the how doesn't seem to matter because it's happening and he can't stop it. He's scared, terrified even, of what will happen if they don't get Lancelot to turn the centre piece of the tablet. The others have noticed that something is wrong with him, but he thinks he's been at least a little successful in hiding the fact that he's turning back into a corpse rather than simply solidifying back into wax.

Any hope he had that he'd get through the night without anybody seeing him rotting away disappeared when he collapsed against the wall on the rooftop.

"Larry," he starts, knowing these may be the last words he ever says, "we've run out of time."

It only takes Larry a few nights to realise that Ahkmenrah is avoiding him. He didn't see much of the Pharaoh when they got home from London because they didn't have much time to get everyone back into place, but they'd been home for two days now and Larry still hadn't seen him. He couldn't think of anything he'd done that would make the young King want to avoid him, but who knows what kinds of things would be unforgivable to an Ancient Egyptian King; he was just thankful that Ahkmenrah wasn't like the rest of his family when it came to the proper way to address a Pharaoh.

For the third night in a row, Larry stands outside the empty Egypt exhibit wondering where on earth Ahkmenrah had gotten to and deciding that if he didn't get to speak to him tonight then tomorrow he would just have to be in the exhibit before sundown so the Pharaoh couldn't make a quick escape. He is about to give up, turning away with a sigh when he spots Teddy watching him from the other end of the corridor.

"Are you looking for our Young King, Lawrence?" The president asks as he makes his way over, hopping down off his horse. "He seems to be spending a lot of time alone these past few nights," he has that smile on his face that means that he knows more than he's letting on, it's as reassuring as it is frustrating.

"Yeah, I can never seem to find him. Do you know where he's been hiding out?" He hopes Teddy has had more luck than he has at playing hide and seek with Ahkmenrah.

"Naturally," there's that smile again, "it isn't me he is hiding from." Larry refrains from rolling his eyes, knowing that it will get him nowhere.

"He's on the roof," Sacagawea always manages to sneak up on him, he's sure she glides rather than walks, but he's never been happier to see her. Teddy speaks in riddles but she at least is always direct.

"Thank you," he tells her, smiling at the way Teddy is looking at her as he makes his way over to the roof access stairwell.

He sits down next to Ahkmenrah, the Pharaoh in all his regalia looking very out of place against the modern New York skyline. They sit in silence for a few moments before Larry sighs.

"You've been avoiding me," he states, leaving no room for argument. But Ahkmenrah doesn't even try to correct him.

"Yes." He states simply as if that answers everything.

"It's dangerous for you to be up here you know, especially if you lose track of time." There's genuine worry in his voice and he feels slightly guilty at that, looking down at the floor.

"I've been careful, I know when the sun is near rising," he tells him quietly, Larry just watches him.

"Do you want to tell me why you've been hiding out up here?" He doesn't want to push him, if something is bothering him enough to make him avoid all the other museum inhabitants then it might not be something the Pharaoh wants to share. Ahkmenrah sighs heavily.

"When we were in London I am aware I worried you. I apologise for my behaviour." And that is not what Larry was expecting at all.

"Ahk, you can't help being affected by the tablet, everyone was. I worried about you because I care about you, but it's not your fault." He feels like he's missing something but he does his best to comfort him with the information the Pharaoh has given him.

"It's not. I mean. I'm not referring to that exactly." Ahkmenrah trips over his words in a way the night guard has never seen him do before.

"Then what? Because, no offense but I'm kind of out of my depth here." Larry asks, trying not to scare him off because he's never seen the Pharaoh look so young and it's kind of sweet and worrying at the same time.

"Pharaohs need to be the image of strength, they can never show any kind of weakness. If I were to show any weakness my ability rule would be questioned all across Egypt, in fact it already was but that's hardly the point!" By this point Larry is getting more and more confused and it must show on his face because Ahkmenrah just sighs "the point is that I have been trained not to show weakness since I was a child and then a few nights ago I was fainting into your arms like one of Lancelot's damsels!"

The night guard just stares at him for a moment, trying to figure out exactly what Ahkmenrah has just said. The minute he figures it out he finds himself trying not to laugh.

"You mean to tell me, that you've been hiding up here and avoiding me because you're embarrassed?" He is reminded of how young the Pharaoh is when he crosses his eyes and huffs, avoiding his gaze.

"It's not funny," he insists. And it kind of is to Larry but he can see why it might upset the other man.

"Alright. But just so you know, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. You were dying again, that must have been scary. It scared the hell out of me, that's for sure." He admits softly, when he looks up he catches Ahkmenrah looking over at him doubtfully.

"You were scared?" He asks quietly, "of what?" Larry laughs disbelievingly.

"You were passing out and claiming you were fine. I didn't work out what effect the tablet was having on you at first but you think when I worked out that it was killing you that I wouldn't be scared? Of course I was scared. I didn't want to lose you, especially not like that." He hadn't meant to admit quite that much but it was too late now.

"I didn't realise." When Ahkmenrah finally spoke it was quietly.

"What? You thought I'd watch you nearly die and just shrug it off?" He didn't mean for it to come out so harshly. Ahk shrugged.

"You put us all to bed every morning and I go back to being dead. You do that every day, I didn't think it would be that much of a problem." Larry considered that for a moment before speaking.

"Yeah, but I know that I'll see you again the next night because you wake up. If you'd have died then you wouldn't have come back. That's entirely different." He just hopes that this gets sorted out soon, it turns out he doesn't like arguing with the young King.

"I just thought. I didn't want you to be ashamed of me. I mean, my Father would have been, not to mention Kah." Ahkmenrah shrugs. "What you think about me matters to me. So yes, I have been hiding away up here because I embarrassed myself." There's a hint of a smile on his face now and Larry uses the opportunity to move closer and place a hand over his.

"I don't really care what your asshole of a brother would have thought. I'm not ashamed of you, you were dying and you still carried on trying to save your friends, that takes some dedication, not to mention strength. Besides, I don't know how it would be possible to be ashamed of a Pharaoh for god's sake. You ruled a land for two years at the age that most kids these days graduate high school so I'd say that's pretty damn hard to be ashamed of." The Pharaoh is smiling now, and Larry can feel where he's relaxed against him to the point that they're now pressed shoulder to shoulder. He takes it as a crisis averted kind of situation.

"So, now that we've gotten that all sorted out, I believe your DJ-ing skills are required in the main reception. Jed was talking about starting a party?" Ahk sighs but there isn't any weight behind it this time.

"I suppose I can manage that."

**_Hope you enjoyed! Reviews are the light of my life and if you want to drop me a prompt then you can either post it here or drop in to my tumblr ask at kieren-fucking-walker. Much love!_**


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